[CRITICAL] WEREWOLF

For his first feature film, Werewolf, Ashley McKenzie observes with sensitivity and personality the heartbreaking story of a couple set aside by the company.

In Cape Breton in Canada, two young junkies, Blaise and Nessa, trying to get by as they can. Trimballant with them a lawn mower, they go door-to-door offering their services for a few tickets. The rest of the time, they do not go to eat, but try to just answer the call by following a program of methadone treatment for heroin addiction.

This story, Ashley McKenzie has been a witness in his native city, he has about five years of age. Characters well real inspiration for the WEREWOLF, his first feature film, selected in competition at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2016. The filmmaker has wanted to understand who they were, that she was the life of these people ignored most of the time. Through this story of the tremendous love, the WEREWOLF ‘s gaze is valuable in the current society. Because by following their daily way, Ashley McKenzie will point to the lack of support towards human beings, remember.

Regardless of the past of Blaise and Nessa, which has led to sinking in of the drug, the director remains in the present moment. We are plunging immediately at their side, filming close-up of a face, a hand that trembles. The constantly while playing dice-framing, causing a form of loss of balance, such as vertigo, ambient feels to the contact of the protagonists. On the day, they wander in the streets, are asking for a little money, leaving next to (when they can) their dignity in the face of the gaze of the ” other “. By showing some courage on their part – especially Nessa, that behind his silence conceals a significant force – and not making them passive beings, McKenzie asks essential questions. How to get out of such a situation ? How to unhook and return to the company when you live in a caravan in the middle of nowhere ? This is not with a medical follow-up and a dose point of methadone is that Nessa and Blaise will be able to really advance. It will take just a nudge of an inhabitant of the district, which will host free of charge. Not of government, but the people who help the people. By this unexpected help, Nessa will be able to wash (she and her clothes) and be sufficiently presentable to apply for a job in the catering industry, whilst continuing with its program of withdrawal. Nothing glorious to clean the frying, but a place of sociability required for hope to climb back up the slope. Except that while being the place that will allow him to get out of his condition, it remains a place alienating and imprisoning. The image of this last map, a hair net placed on the head of Nessa, which shows all the intelligence of the gaze of the director.

“Werewolf is a small independent film that shakes up pointing to the isolation of human” Click to tweet

If Nessa will go well from the front, this will not be the case of Blaise. It was then that the WEREWOLF gets to portray a love story of the most tragic. Because, ultimately, the more hard will not be as long to get the drug, but a relationship is toxic (to a point). Blaise is not a bad boy, but just a much more destroyed than his companion, it will take them a couple towards the bottom. In a physically weakened state, unable to restart their mower, leaving Nessa to do the majority of the work, it simply appears far too lacking to be of any support. Sometimes, the union does not have the strength, and there is a need to break away for his own well-being. In this WEREWOLF turns out to be heartbreaking and even remember a certain Panic in Needle Park (Jerry Schatzberg, 1971).

Fortunately, Ashley McKenzie avoids pathos and always keeps in view the aspect of humanity of his characters, not to overwhelm them. She has a real personality and a sensitivity that is touching, and has to accompany two performers moving (Andrew Gillis and Bhreagh MacNeil). Sometimes disturbing in the way we confront a reality that is difficult, but so interesting in its substance as its form, the WEREWOLF is revealed in a small independent movie a great success, only 1 hour and 20 minutes. There was no advantage for us to hustle as much.

Stone Siclier

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